By Ryan Afable
Did you ever get annoyed when you would spend the first few days of school getting retaught the stuff you know? This is a phenomenon known as learning loss, which is what happens when students are away from school for an extended period of time and they start to forget stuff that they were taught. This is one of the reasons why people support an all year school schedule.
People started worrying about learning loss at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. We all returned to school where many people realized that kids could not remember stuff they learned in school when they were younger. On the Harvard Gazette there is an article called “Harvard Thinking; How far has Covid Set Back Students?” This article talks about a study Thomas Kane conducted where he discovered that kids have on average lost half a grade level in math and a quarter grade level in reading skills. Then, the Varnett Public School made a post called “Addressing Student Learning Loss After The Pandemic.” It said, “Data collected by McKinsey & Company presents a dismal picture of academic achievement from 2019 to 2021. Its research shows that the average student in American K-12 schools is five months behind in math and four months behind in reading.”
There is also learning loss on a smaller scale that happens during the summer; it is known as summer learning loss. On the NWEA website, they have an article called “Summer Learning Loss: What We Know and What We’re Learning.” In the article there is a point where it says, “On average, test scores flatten or drop during the summer, with larger drops typically in math than reading.” This is why teachers will often have you take some sort of assessment so they can see where you are and if there is anything that needs to be retaught. On Brookings, they have an article called “Summer Learning Loss: What is it and What can we do About it” In this article they talk about a study that they made from 2008-2012, where kids lost 25-30% of what they learned throughout the year.
One of the teachers at this school, Mr. Hughes, who is an English and Journalism teacher, was asked what it was like after COVID. He had this to say: “People became accustomed to doing the bare minimum and to not being pushed to change such behavior because it felt unfair since students are in widely different circumstances.” He also said this when asked about how big of a problem learning loss is: “Overall, I don’t think it is a significant issue. If nothing else, it’s still a worthwhile problem to have since the benefits of having longer breaks outweigh the learning loss that kids may or may not have.”
When Coach T was asked, he said that he has to reteach things everyday. Then when asked about how bad summer learning loss he had this to say: “The only people that lose during the summer are the ones that don’t want to win. I think summer learning loss is a conscious choice. If you don’t want to lose it, then keep reviewing it.”
This is still a relatively new subject, so there is not a lot of research on it. Both of the interviewed teachers said that it is not something that should be worried about. It’s up to you to learn, and you learn whenever you do something.
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